WND EXCLUSIVE

Blood moons: Christians 'on wrong calendar'

How Western days, dates may mislead believers

Earthquakes, floods and storms are being reported around the globe, and many Christians, as they have for centuries, are watching for signs of Jesus’ return.

They’re also studying the Bible and tracking events.

But what if the Gregorian calendar, which the Western world has used for generations, doesn’t align with God’s timeline?

Pastor Mark Biltz, founder of the El Shaddai Ministries and proponent of the Hebrew Roots Revival, believes the Gregorian calendar is not in sync with God’s calendar.

“The problem is that we have not been tuned in nor have we been on the right calendar. Our current calendar is based totally on the sun. It is a very accurate calendar. But it is not the calendar God uses. The Muslims’ calendar is based totally on the moon. It, too, is a great calendar but it is not the one God uses,” Biltz explains.

“In Genesis, concerning the sun, the moon and the stars that He created, He also said, ‘let them determine the seasons, days and years.’ So while most people on this planet use either the sun or the moon to determine their calendar, it is only the ancient biblical calendar used by the Jewish people that God utilizes to get His messages across,” Biltz explained.

Biltz believes that the reason why Christians aren’t on the right calendar is due to faulty translations of the Bible from the original Hebrew into English.

“When God said the sun and the moon were to determine the seasons, days and years, He was not talking about winter, spring, summer and fall. The problem is the English translations. The same Hebrew word translated into English as ‘seasons’ in Genesis 1 is translated into English as ‘feasts’ in Leviticus 23:2. The Hebrew word is ‘moed’ and is better translated as ‘divine appointments.’ When it talks about days and years it is referring to determining the Holy days such as Passover and the Feast of Rosh Hashanah and not to Labor Day!” Biltz states.

Biltz believes the details of the biblical calendar easily can be integrated into the Western world’s traditional calendar, because for a time he lived in an area that used both Central and Mountain Time.

“I lived in Garden City, Kan., where many people had two clocks because they were on the time line differentiating between Central Time and Mountain Time. To communicate with each other, even being only a few miles away we had to know whose time zone we were going to use. Well, we also need to have two calendars in this world if we want to include God in our conversation,” the pastor said.

Biltz believes that God wants to reveal the biblical calendar so that people can understand the signals He uses to communicate.

Biltz is also currently at work on a book for WND that will delve even further into the topic.

“Scientifically you can only have a solar eclipse on the first day of the Jewish calendar and you can only have a lunar eclipse on the 15th of the Jewish calendar. Throughout history there are thousands of eclipses that happen but they don’t always fall on the feast days. So when eclipses fall on the feast days, we have to consider what signal it is that God is trying to send us,” Biltz says.

“When you consider the last time there were four blood moons in a row … falling on the feast days was in 1967 and 1968 when Israel recaptured Jerusalem. The time before that was the two years right after they became a nation in 1948. You can’t help but stand there with your mouth opened wide with the impeccable timing and signals sent to the world by the Creator of the universe,” Biltz concludes.

The signs in the heavens – the actual dates from NASA when eclipses will occur, including Comet Ison

Intertwining the civil calendar with the biblical calendar

Dates of significant biblical events from history

Personal photos of Israel from yearly tours sponsored by El Shaddai

Weekly Torah portions with New Testament readings listed

A full-page write-up explaining the Feasts of the Lord

Annual biblical holidays and sabbaths highlighted

Biltz’s message centers on the fact that the messianic prophecies that Jesus fulfilled 2,000 years ago, when He came the first time, happened to the very day.

Biltz explains how His second coming events will also happen to the very day of the Fall Feasts.

Yeshua died for our sins on Passover, Biltz says, was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, was resurrected from death on First Fruits, and then sent the Holy Spirit to indwell believers on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost (Shavuot).

If He fulfilled the Spring Feasts to the very day on His first coming, Biltz argues, He will fulfill the Fall Feasts to the very day on His second coming.

Biltz also reveals a link between charts of solar and lunar eclipses from NASA’s website and Israel’s history, the biblical feast days and the signs in the heavens, drawing clear similarities between them and showing how they line up through history.

Hagee’s “Four Blood Moons” points out that on Passover in 2014, the first of a series of mysterious astronomical events will occur that will have the whole world looking up at the night skies.

Biltz had been studying prophecies that focus on the sun and moon, even going back to the book of Genesis where it states the lights in the sky would be “be for signs, and for seasons.”

“It means a signal, kind of like ‘one if by land, two if by sea.’ It’s like God wants to signal us,” he said. “The Hebrew word implies … not only is it a signal, but it’s a signal for coming or His appearing.”

Biltz notes that the word “seasons” implies appointed times for God’s feasts and festivals.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Joel states, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.” (Joel 2:31)

In the New Testament, Jesus is quoted as saying: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light. … And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:29-30)

Acts 2 states: “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.”

“God wants us to look at the biblical calendar,” says Biltz. “The reason we need to be watching is [because] He will signal His appearance. But we have to know what to be watching as well. So we need to be watching the biblical holidays.”

Biltz noticed that “blood moons” result from lunar eclipses.

Watch Biltz explain his findings:

When checking the schedule for eclipses, Biltz found two – one on Passover the next on the high holy day of Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh Hebrew month. Two more take place in 2015, also on biblical “feast” days.

Hagee also has taken Biltz’s findings and authored the first book about the blood moons that some believe will herald the Second Coming of Jesus.